


Longest of Long Shots

by sanctum_c



Series: Aerith Month 2018 [9]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cold, Cold Weather, Gen, Icicle Inn, Snow, Turk!Aeris, Turks (Compilation of FFVII)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:21:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27620632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: After a ghost from the past seemingly kills President Shinra, the Turks are dispatched to track down any lead - however remote.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough & Elena
Series: Aerith Month 2018 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2009521
Kudos: 2





	Longest of Long Shots

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'Birthplace'

“This is horrible!” Elena shouted above the howling wind, rubbing at the sleeves of her coat. Behind Aeris the landing craft was already motoring back out to the sub; their temporary home for the last week on this trip to the North. Now a frustrating trek through the snow lay between them and their destination. Gelnikas could not operate effectively at this latitude – nor did Shinra seem willing to construct any kind of base up here. That left the sea, and largely the subs. To look on the positive side of things, the week in transit had given Aeris plenty of time to get to know the newest member of the Turks. On reflection, playing endless hands of cards had not been the best preparation for the weather here.

“What did you expect?” she asked the other woman.

“I know, it’s just-“ Elena shook her head. “How far?”

Aeris peered at the map, the wind threatening to tear it from her hands. “A few hours away.” They had an emergency shelter with them, but staying out here was not an outcome either looked forward to. She took a wobbly step forward, each footfall sinking deep into the snow, her muscles already aching. Elena trailed after her, conversation difficult. At least it was not snowing.

To the south a line of mountains jutted up above the snow, representing one of the known limits of the continent. There were partial maps of the region, but explorers and cartographers always went missing somewhere in the maze of caves and twisted paths there. Further South at the lowest tip of the continent was the Sleeping Forest – the name no kind of exaggeration; those who ventured past the tree line would succumb to exhaustion well before reaching any kind of conjectured half-way point. If lucky, a team from Bone Village would find them and drag them back out. If unlucky- Was there anything in there to feed on them? Something unaffected by the soporific effect? What was in between the trees and the mountains? Perhaps the mountains lead into the forest and there was nothing to find.

A mystery for another time. All she could do was speculate for now; neither Turk was remotely equipped to risk exploration in that area. Elena was talking to her.

“Huh?” Aeris blinked and strained to hear anything over the wind. “Didn’t catch that.”

“I said, ‘Do you really think we’ll find anything?’,” Elena asked. “That lab’s been abandoned for at least two decades.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Aeris said. “Orders are orders.”

“Yeah, but-“ Elena cut herself off.

Hard not to share her unspoken pessimism about the assignment. All things considered, Elena should be glad this was not one of the less pleasant Turk missions. Forget SOLDIER recruitment; one of Aeris’s first tasks was a panicked shoot-out with some anti-Shinra forces in the Midgar slums. Elena should be able to avoid getting her hands bloodied on this mission. As hurried and ill-conceived as it was.

The science division were running out of ideas and fast. Not that anyone had any better plans given the strange situation they were now in. An impossible ghost from the past was back. The impossible return of Sephiroth should have been easy to dismiss, but Palmer was sticking to his story no matter how many times he repeated it. He had seen something - that much was accepted - but whether Sephiroth or something else was still up for debate. Had the alleged ghost killed the president or was someone else responsible? Unknown - and Shinra needed information. Sending people for anything related to Sephiroth's past was the current longest of the long shots.

Reno and Rude had been dispatched back to Nibelheim for what was left of the Jenova project records. That sounded a more sensible and pleasant destination, but Hojo was strangely insistent Aeris be sent here – and Rufus was ready to capitulate to whatever the man wanted. No doubt Hojo was messing with her again. For a time she had been the subject of endless fascination; he cared more for those whispers on the edge of her hearing than she did. They were part of the background of life. Nothing to worry about. But he worried, and wanted to know the voices' source. But if there was a single flaw to Hojo (absurd; the man had a billion) his short attention span topped the list. He no longer considered Aeris endlessly fascinating nor those voices - nothing had been made of them in years.

The voices never spoke in words – or at least any Aeris was familiar with – but were always audible. Here they should be clear above the wind, but for some reason her head was quiet. Strangely both a relief and troubling to be without something that had seemed ever-present in the past. Not something Elena needed to know about either.

* * *

Hours later, the lights of Icicle Inn shone ahead of them, the small town somewhat sheltered from the freezing winds by the landscape. Their rooms at the inn had been arranged in advance – they might be lacking easy transport, but at least there were phonelines here. “C’mon,” Aeris gestured further into town when Elena moved towards the inn and their shared room.

“What. Now?” Her face fell.

Aeris shrugged. “We can reconnoitre at least. Saves time if there’s nothing worth grabbing. If there is-“ Another shrug. “Then we don’t have to worry tomorrow.”

Elena’s eyes widened. “You’re actually advocating bunking off?” She grinned. “You?”

Aeris bit back a smile and headed for the relevant building. “I’m lazier than people think.”

“You gotta teach me how.”

The former lab was a little way down the street, the door near blocked by accumulated snowfall over the years. The power had been cut off long ago; no way to see in here without their torches. The place looked more like a house – a distinction even less clear inside. Or perhaps more accurately, the building had once been a house and was now a lab. No. Somehow it straddled the distinctions. A set of stairs lead down to what looked like a furnished bedroom below ground. “Why did Hojo say the lab was shut down?” The succession of too familiar holes in surfaces and equipment induced a shiver down Aeris’s spine.

“Not sure he ever did?” Elena peered at debris on the other side of the room. She sneezed. “Urgh. There’s nothing here.”

Aeris nodded as she swept her torch across the equipment. And stopped. A set of video-tapes had been jammed in between a VCR and some unfamiliar apparatus. Odd to find them here the lack of any paper and books - not caught by the gunfire. Curious; the write-protect tabs had been snapped off all of them. “Something.”

Elena bustled over to her. “Videos?” She looked exasperated. “What’s on ‘em?”

“Just the date,” Aeris replied turning one of the tapes over in her hand. “Might be something useful.”

“Maybe,” Elena sighed. “At least we found something. Does this mean we need to look again tomorrow?”

“Sadly. Easier to see in the light I suppose.” She hefted the tapes. A new thought. She pushed the flap of the VCR open and swore. “There’s a tape still inside.”

“Want to tear it apart?”

“And risk damaging the tape?” Aeris shook her head. “We better take the whole thing.”

Easier said than done. The VCR’s power cable and data cables disappeared into the surface it sat on and required a long time shifting furniture and removing panelling. Might have been easier to cut the cables – but impossible to say if they could be easily replaced. They removed the VCR and retreated to separate rooms at the Inn. For some reason sleep seemed determined to evade Aeris that night; her thoughts kept drifting back to that half-lab, half-home. Back to those bullet holes and what they implied about the past. To the lack of voices on the edge of hearing.


End file.
